The  Church 
and  Hospital  Work 

A.  S.  KAVANAGH,  D.  D., 

Superintendent  Methodist  Episcopal  Hospital , 
Brooklyn ,  New  York 


An  Address  delivered  at  Ocean  Grove  before  the  Home  Missionary  Society 


■=J>6  ^  .  » 
K  iu 


The  Church  and  Hospital  Work 


THE  hospital  work  of  our  church  is  still  in  its  infancy. 
Twenty-five  years  ago  Methodism  was  just  entering 
the  hosxfital  field.  Our  first  hospital  was  founded  in 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  in  1881,  and  its  doors  were  opened  for 
the  reception  of  patients  in  1887.  There  may  have  been  some 
dispensary  or  out-patient  work  done  under  the  auspices  of  our 
-  church  in  foreign  mission  fields  prior  to  that  time,  but  nothing 
fi 2  that  could  be  designated  as  hospital  work  proper  in  the  modern 

understanding  of  that  term. 

The  next  year  the  Wesley  Hospital,  in  Chicago,  was  opened. 
Then  followed  the  opening  of  our  hospitals  in  Cincinnati, 
Omaha,  Philadelphia,  Washington,  Kansas  City,  Des  Moines, 
(p  Seattle,  Indianapolis,  Boston,  Cleveland,  Peoria,  Baltimore, 
and  in  many  other  places  both  at  home  and  in  foreign  fields. 

The  first  formal  recognition  of  this  work  by  the  church  was 
given  at  the  recent  session  of  the  General  Conference  at  Min* 
neapolis.  All  memorials  and  resolutions  concerning  hospital 
work  were  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Temporal  Economy, 
and  by  that  committee  referred  to  a  sub-committee  on  hospi¬ 
tals.  I  had  the  honor  of  being  a  member  of  this  sub-commit¬ 
tee.  We  sought  to  bring  together  the  representatives  of  our 
hospitals,  so  far  as  they  could  be  reached  at  Minneapolis,  for 
consultation. 

Such  a  meeting  was  held  at  the  Hotel  Radisson  at  the  invi¬ 
tation  of  ex-Yice-President  Fairbanks,  president  of  our  hospi¬ 
tal  at  Indianapolis,  who  was  visiting  the  General  Conference. 
This  meeting  was  well  attended.  The  proposed  report  of  the 
sub-committee  was  considered  at  length,  and  unanimously  ap¬ 
proved.  Later  a  hospital  lunch  was  enjoyed  by  even  a  larger 
company,  when  brief  addresses  were  made  by  representatives 
of  more  than  a  score  of  hospitals. 

When  the  report  of  the  sub-committee  was  presented  to  the 
Committee  on  Temporal  Economy,  it  was  adopted  unani¬ 
mously.  And  when  finally  it  was  presented  to  the  General 


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Conference,  after  a  slight  amendment,  it  was  also  adopted 
unanimously,  and  became  the  law  of  the  church. 

The  new  law  in  substance  provides  in  the  first  paragraph 
that  our  hospitals  shall  always  be  ready  to  receive  the  sick 
poor  recommended  by  our  pastors,  under  proper  rules  and  reg¬ 
ulations,  net  as  charity  patients,  but  as  guests  of  the  church. 
On  the  other  hand,  each  confere  .ee,  by  formal  vote,  shall  be¬ 
come  the  patron  of  at  least  or.e  of  our  church  hospitals,  and 
contribute  for  its  support  each  year  a  communion  or  other 
o tiering  through  its  individual  churches. 

In  the  second  paragraph  it  provides  that  our  hospitals  shall 
make  ample  ’  revision  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  patients, 
nurses  and  employes,  specifying  the  administration  of  the 
sac  raments  of  the  church. 

In  the  third  paragraph  it  provides  that  no  hospital  shall  be 
established  hereafter  without  the  approval  of  the  conference 
within  whose  bounds  it  is  to  be  located.  It  provides,  also,  that 
the  board  of  managers  of  each  hospital,  through  its  superin¬ 
tendent  or  other  representative,  shall  render  an  annual  report 
to  its  patronizing  conferences,  which  report  it  shall  also  pub¬ 
lish  in  its  own  annual  report. 

The  fourth  paragraph  deals  with  the  training  of  young 
women  as  nurses  and  deaconesses,  and  especially  those  pro¬ 
posing  to  serve  in  home  and  foreign  mission  fields. 

In  this  way  the  hospital^ work  of  the  church  was  officially 
recognized  and  endorsed  at  Minneapolis. 

Now,  as  we  stand  upon  the  threshold  of  what  is  practically 
a  new  work  in  Methodism,  I  wish  to  emphasize  some  matters 
which  I  deem  of  the  utmost  importance  in  its  formative  period. 

i.  First  of  all  we  should  see  to  it  that  our  church  hospitals 
shall  stand  for  the  best  in  the  medical  and  surgical  world.  In 
a  work  like  this  piety  should  not  be  permitted  to  take  the  place 
of  science.  A  religious  name  should  not  be  a  cloak  for  me¬ 
diocrity.  Men  and  women  will  come  to  us  because  of  our  reli¬ 
gious  affiliations.  We  must  not  betray  their  confidence.  We 
must  not  disappoint  them.  The  fact  that  we  are  a  church  hos¬ 
pital  should  be  a  guarantee  not  only  of  piety  but  of  science  as' 
well. 

When  I  think  of  the  blunders  of  physicians  and  surgeons  in 
the  past;  of  the  darkness  and  uncertainty  through  which  medi¬ 
cine  and  surgery  have  groped  their  way,  it  is  easy  for  me  to 


become  an  apologist  for  the  Christian  Scientists  and  the  Men¬ 
tal  Scientists  of  a  couple  of  decades  ago.  The  rise  of  these 
cults  was  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  as  a  protest 
against  the  so-called  science  of  medicine  and  surgery  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago.  But  we  are  now  living  in  a  different 
age — in  an  age  when  science  is  more  nearly  what  it  professes 
to  be.  The  physician  goes  into  Cuba,  and  there,  in  the  cause 
•of  humanity  and  science,  sacrifices  his  life,  but  expels  yellow 
fever,  and  makes  an  epidemic  of  that  disease  an  impossibility 
in  enlightened  lands. 

In  the  same  way  smallpox  and  diphtheria  have  been  robbed 
to  a  very  large  extent  of  their  terrors.  The  number  of  soldiers 
we  lost  by  typhoid  fever  in  our  little  war  with  Spain  was  ap 
palling.  Today  it  is  almost  unknown  in  our  camps.  Science 
has  done  this. 

Now  every  well-equipped  and  well-manned  hospital  should 
know  the  last  word  on  these  subjects,  and  be  able  skillfully  to 
apply  the  best  remedies.  They  may  not  all  be  institutions  for 
investigation,  technically  so-called,  but  as  far  as  the  applica¬ 
tion  of  proven  remedies  is  concerned  they  should  have  a  high 
reputation. 

To  achieve  this  distinction,  in  each  hospital  of  considerable 
size  there  should  be  a  medical  and  surgical  staff  of  the  ablest 
physicians  and  surgeons  in  the  community  to  whom  should  be 
committed  the  professional  work  of  the  hospital.  These  men 
should  care  for  patients  making  direct  application  to  the  hos¬ 
pital  for  treatment.  If  such  patients  can  afford  private  accom¬ 
modation  the  physician  or  surgeon,  as  a  rule,  should  be  re¬ 
munerated,  the  fee  to  be  determined  by  the  hospital  authori¬ 
ties;  but  if  the  patient  occupy  a  ward  bed,  there  should  be  no 
fee  collected,  for  only  poor  patients  should  occupy  ward  beds. 

The  services  of  the  ablest  physicians  and  surgeons  can  eas¬ 
ily  be  secured  because  of  the  experience  received  and  the 
standing  that  such  an  appointment  would  give  them  in  the 
community. 

While  the  medical  board  should  be  consulted  as  to  new  ap¬ 
pointees,  the  board  of  managers  should  always  reserve  for 
themselves  the  appointing  power.  While  such  an  organization 
as  I  have  just  described  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  high 
standing  of  the  hospital,  and  is  substantially  the  plan  adopted 
by  all  hospitals  of  the  highest  grade,  yet  the  privileges  of  the 


private  beds  should  be  extended  to  physicians  of  all  schools  in 
good  standing  in  the  com  nunity. 

But  even  these  privileges  should  be  extended  with  care. 
Only  surgeons  of  recognized  ability  should  be  permitted  the 
use  of  the  operating  room.  There  are  many  men  trying  to 
operate  for  the  money  there  is  in  it,  who  should  be  prosecuted 
for  unnecessarily  endangering  life.  In  our  hospital  in  Brook¬ 
lyn  we  open  our  private  beds  to  outside  physicians,  but  we  do 
not  permit  any  outside  physician  to  use  our  operating  room 
who  is  not  an  attending  surgeon  in  some  other  high  grade  hos¬ 
pital.  This  matter  is  of  such  importance  that  I  believe  every 
state  should  take  it  under  consideration,  and  no  man  should 
be  allowed  to  practice  major  surgery  without  a  special  state 
license. 

2.  In  the  second  place  our  hospitals  should  stand  as  monu¬ 
ments  to  the  healing  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  an  emas¬ 
culated  gospel  which  teaches  “Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee,”  but 
forgets  “Rise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  walk.”  Over  and  over 
He  healed  the  sick  and  preached  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom. 
He  never  divorced  these  two  ministries. 

If  you  will  turn  to  the  gospels  and  read  you  cannot  fail  to  be 
impressed  with  the  extent  of  His  healing  ministry.  On  every 
page  you  have  the  record  of  the  blind  receiving  their  sight,  or 
the  deaf  having  their  ears  unstopped,  or  of  the  dumb  learning 
to  speak,  or  of  the  lame  being  made  to  walk,  or  the  fever- 
stricken  being  relieved,  and  everywhere  multitudes  are  throng¬ 
ing  to  Him,  and  the  oft-repeated  record  is:  “He  healed  them 
all.” 

Washington  Gladden  reviewing  this  story  says:  “There  was 
not  a  miserable  creature  in  all  Palestine  who  did  not  know  that 
Jesus  was  his  friend.” 

Bishop  Henry  W.  Warren  once  said  in  a  public  address  that 
if  he  had  never  heard  of  Christ,  and  never  read  of  His  marvel¬ 
ous  ministry,  and  should  be  handed  a  copy  of  the  gospels  for 
the  first  time,  he  was  quite  sure  that  upon  reading  it  he  would 
say  that  the  chief  mission  of  Jesus  upon  earth  was  to  heal  the 
sick  and  comfort  those  in  sorrow. 

Every  hospital  that  names  the  name  of  Christ  should  stand 
as  a  monument  to  this  healing  ministry. 

Every  age  needs  such  a  ministry  as  this. 

Do  you  know  that  at  this  moment  there  are  at  least  250,000 


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people  sick  in  Greater  New  York?  That  would  be  about  live 
per  cent  of  the  population.  Two-thirds  of  these  are  very  ill. 
But  these  figures  do  not  take  into  account  those  who  are  watch¬ 
ing  by  those  bedsides,  who  often  suffer  more  than  those  in  the 
beds. 

Or,  take  a  few  more  statistics.  It  is  sometimes  said  that 
death  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  In  a  sense  that  may  be  true, 
but  in  another  sense  it  is  not  true.  It  is  said  that  of  ten  mil¬ 
lion  people  of  wealth  and  ease  100,000  will  die  this  year.  Of 
«  ten  million  who  work  hard  for  a  living  150,000  will  die  this 

year.  But  of  ten  million  of  those  who  live  in  poverty  350,000 
will  die  this  year.  That  is,  the  farther  down  the  scale  of  priv¬ 
ilege  and  comfort  you  go,  the  greater  the  amount  of  sorrow. 
Death  is  a  respecter  of  persons. 

How  are  we  to  relieve  this  condition  ot  things?  Permit  me 
to  suggest  two  practical  ways: 

1.  A  couple  of  years  ago  I  preached  on  the  ministry  of  heal¬ 
ing  in  one  of  our  Brooklyn  churches.  In  the  course  of  that 
sermon  I  said:  “If  I  were  to  return  to  the  pastorate  again,  I 
should  seek  the  services  of  some  good  women,  whether  a  dea¬ 
coness  or  a  trained  nurse  I  did  not  care,  who  could  make  a 
cup  of  tea  or  a  bowl  of  soup;  who  could  sweep  a  floor  and 
wash  a  baby;  and  relieve  for  an  hour  or  so  an  overworked 
mother.  I  should  magnify  that  kind  of  ministry. 

At  the  close  of  the  sermon  a  trained  nurse  came  forward  and 
said  to  the  pastor:  “I  am  ready  for  service.  I  have  some 
time  at  my  disposal.”  A  year  later  the  pastor  wrote  me: 
“That  nurse  has  been  a  great  blessing  to  the  church  during  the 
past  year.  Every  day  she  has  visited  someone  who  was  sick, 
and  for  six  months  she  has  cared  for  a  poor  woman  who  was 
dying  of  cancer.” 

My  friends,  that’s  what  Jesus  did.  There  was  no  chasm  be¬ 
tween  Him  and  the  people.  That’s  the  work  that  gives  power 
to  the  missionary  in  foreign  lands.  That’s  the  work  that 
would  give  power  and  influence'  to  the  church  at  home.  And  I 
know  of  no  finer  piece  of  home  missionary  work  for  your  or¬ 
ganization  to  engage  in  than  this,  right  in  your  own  church,  as 
*  well  as  in  the  more  distant  parts  of  the  land. 

2.  I  would  magnify  the  work  of  the  Christian  hospital — in  a 
sense  all  hospitals  are  Christian  and  “all  healing  is  divine” — 
but  in  a  special  sense  our  Christian  hospitals  should  be  de- 


5 


voted  to  the  healing  of  the  sick  in  body,  mind  and  soul.  And 
it  is  the  desire  of  our  chuich  that  every  one  of  our  church  hos- 
pitals  shall  have  this  ideal  constantly  before  them. 

3.  Then  in  the  next  place  our  hospitals  should  stand  for  the 
most  active  cooperation  with  our  pastors.  Our  hospitals 
should  be  the  medical  and  surgical  assistants  of  our  pastors. 
I  mean  that  in  a  literal  sense. 

Every  church  in  my  patronizing  conferences  are  towns  and 
villages  which  have  no  hospital  accommodation,  and  even  if 
they  have,  often  they  must  enter  as  paupers,  and  be  published 
in  the  town  as  such.  Now  I  want  to  tell  you  it’s  hard  to  be 
poor,  but  it’s  worse  to  have  it  published  to  the  world. 

Today  many  of  our  hospitals  are  in  constant  cooperation 
with  our  pastors.  For  example,,  one  morning  when  I  came  to 
my  office,  I  found  awaiting  me  a  pastor  who  had  come  two 
hundred  miles  with  a  poor  man,  a  farm  hand.  The  day  before 
a  doctor  had  told  this  farm  hand  that  he  would  die  within  forty- 
eight  hours  unless  operated  upon  in  some  hospital.  He  also 
stated  that  the  hospital  rates  would  be  one  dollar  a  day,  and 
the  surgeon’s  fee  one  hundred  dollars,  but  the  poor  man,  with 
all  his  relatives,  could  not  raise  that  amount  of  money.  What 
was  to  be  done?  When  the  pastor  heard  of  the  circumstances 
he  looked  up  the  poor  fellow,  and  offered  to  bring  him  to 
Brooklyn  on  the  Albany  night  boat,  and  so  I  found  them  in  my 
office.  He  had  to  be  operated  upon  immediately.  He  recov¬ 
ered  and  returned  home  in  a  few  weeks.  He  was  a  poor  man. 
No  charge  whatever  was  made."  How  much  did  the  hospital 
mean  to  that  man,  to  that  pastor,  to  that  church? 

Or,  take  another  case.  A  young  woman  was  about  to  grad¬ 
uate  from  college.  Her  father  and  mother  had  worked  to  the 
bleeding  point  to  give  that  girl  an  education.  She  was  within 
a  few  months  of  graduation  when  she  broke  down  and  was 
compelled  to  leave  college.  Father  and  mother  and  daughter 
were  disappointed,  and  the  girl  was  heart-broken.  The  doctor 
came  in,  and  examination  was  made.  She  must  go  immediately 
to  a  hospital  for  an  operation.  What  will  it  cost?  Twenty- 
five  dollars  a  week  for  a  room.  Seeing  that  they  were  poor, 
the  surgeon’s  fee  would  be  moderate — only  two  hundred  dollars. 

As  such  things  go,  those  terms  were  not  exorbitant.  There 
is  no  hospital  that  will  make  one  dollar  out  of  a  private  room 
patient  that  pays  but  twenty-five  dollars  a  week;  and  for  such 


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an  operation,  two  hundred  to  five  hundred  dollars  would  not 
be  extravagant.  But  where  could  they  get  twenty-five  dollars 
a  week,  or  a  surgeon’s  fee?  Broken-hearted,  discouraged,  they 
knew  not  what  to  do. 

When  the  pastor  learned  these  facts  he  told  them  to  be  of 
good  cheer,  we  had  a  hospital  of  our  own,  and  surgeons  of  our 
own  who  would  gladly  render  the  most  skillful  service,  and 
there  would  be  no  charge  for  either  hospital  or  surgeon  A 
dispatch  told  me  the  story,  and  my  dispatch  brought  her  to  the 
hospital  without  unnecessary  delay.  And  never  shall  I  forget 
the  abounding  joy  of  that  girl  as  she  left  the  hospital,  restored 
to  health,  and  full  of  hope,  and  determined  to  complete  her 
college  work. 

That’s  what  I  mean.  And  every  one  of  my  patronizing  con¬ 
ferences  know  that  any  pastor  can  call  upon  me  as  his  assist¬ 
ant  if  he  has  a  patient  who  can  be  helped  in  a  general  hospital 
such  as  ours. 

If  the  patient  can  pay,  he  is  expected  to  do  so.  If  he  can 
pay  a  part  only,  he  is  expected  to  do  that.  If  he  can  pay  noth¬ 
ing,  he  is  received  as  gladly  as  if  he  could  pay  our  full  rates; 
and  in  any  case  he  is  a  guest  of  the  church. 

This  kind  of  service  is  expensive,  and  it  means  that  the 
greater  part  of  our  work  must  be  free,  but  what  is  the  hospital 
for,  why  is  it  supported?  To  care  for  those  who  are  well-to-do 
and  can  pay  their  way?  No,  a  thousand  times  no.  The  well- 
to-do  can  easily  receive  proper  treatment.  Our  hospitals  are 
meant  especially  for  the  poor,  and  those  in  moderate  circum¬ 
stances.  Therefore,  our  glory  should  be  not  that  our  receipts 
from  patients  in  any  given  year  paid  all  our  bills.  Nay,  rather 
our  glory  should  be  that  while  our  receipts  did  not  begin  to 
pay  our  bills,  the  generosity  of  good  men  and  good  women 
supplied  what  was  lacking,  and  the  great  bulk  of  our  work  was 
free  work. 

A  record  like  this  will  lead  men  and  women  to  endow  cribs, 
and  beds,  and  rooms,  and  wards,  for  the  love  of  the  church, 
but  still  more  for  the  love  of  Christ,  the  great  Head  of  the 
church. 

Looking  back  over  twenty-five  years  of  this  healing  ministry 
under  the  auspices  of  our  church  we  rejoice  that  our  great 
General  Conference  has  now  given  its  full  endorsement  to  this 
practical  form  of  Christianity.  We  should  now  see  to  it  that 


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cur  ideals  are  worthy  of  our  church,  and  still  more  worthy  of 
Him  concerning  whom  it  was  repeatedy  said:  “He  healed  the 
sick  and  preached  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom.” 


